From 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 24:00 midnight on 22 May 2022 (local time), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 8,462 civilian casualties in the country: 3,930 killed and 4,532 injured. This included:
- a total of 3,930 killed (1,482 men, 973 women, 90 girls, and 98 boys, as well as 69 children and 1,218 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
- a total of 4,532 injured (880 men, 588 women, 106 girls, and 124 boys, as well as 164 children and 2,670 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
- In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 4,725 casualties (2,200 killed and 2,525 injured)
- On Government-controlled territory: 4,075 casualties (2,072 killed and 2,003 injured)
- On territory controlled by Russian affiliated armed groups: 650 casualties (128 killed and 522 injured)
- In other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Rivne, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 3,737 casualties (1,730 killed and 2,007 injured)
- In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 4,725 casualties (2,200 killed and 2,525 injured)
Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes.
The actual figures are much higher, as the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission is unable to visit sites of intense fighting and interview victims and witnesses.
OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration. This concerns, for example, Mariupol (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), and Popasna (Luhansk region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties.
An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 24:00 midnight on 19 May 2022 (local time) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred from 20 to 22 May only, as during these days OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported from 20 to 22 May have been included into the above figures. Some of them are still pending corroboration and if confirmed, will be reported on in future updates.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine
